Founder Profile

Pew is an independent nonprofit organization – the sole beneficiary of seven individual trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by four generous and committed siblings. Learn more about one of our founders: Mary Ethel Pew.

This report seeks to develop a clear picture of the current state of household financial security. It explores the ways three components of family balance sheets—income, expenditures, and wealth—have changed over the past several decades, how they interrelate, and why understanding family finances requires that they be examined together.

The study reveals a striking level of financial fragility: Despite the national recovery, many families have experienced minimal wage growth, have few savings, and could not withstand a financial emergency. This reality must begin to change if the American Dream is to remain alive and well for future generations.

Key Findings

EARNINGS GROWTH

2%
Total growth in earnings for typical U.S. worker from 1999-2009.

Earnings growth has changed little in the past decade. By comparison, it was 22 percent for the typical worker between 1979 and 1999.

6%
growth in average household expenditures since 1984, after adjusting for inflation.

Average annual household expenditures show only modest change over the past several decades. However, this is largely due to the outsize impact of the Great Recession, which eroded 20 years of consumption growth and pushed spending back to 1990 levels.

The extended key finding text under “Expenditures” was
updated on Feb. 5, 2016, to remove misplaced language that referred to certain
types of savings and replace it with information about household spending.

This report finds that three-quarters of Gen Xers—Americans born between 1965 and 1980—have higher family incomes than their parents did at the same ages, but only a third have higher wealth. In part, this is because the typical Gen Xer has six times more debt than their parents did.

This study demonstrates that women's increased labor force participation and earnings have enabled some families to maintain their places on the economic ladder or, particularly among families at the bottom, to move up. But, as was the case for many women in the previous generation, men's earnings continue to matter most for families' income and economic mobility.